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Date: 10/18/2023
EAST LONGMEADOW — Superintendent Gordon Smith presented the East Longmeadow School Committee with the results of the fall Panorama school climate survey and i-Ready assessment. The results were a mixed bag for the schools academically and in terms of social-emotional wellbeing.
Smith began by discussing the demographics of the schools. “We have an incredible number of languages spoken in homes across East Longmeadow,” he said. White students comprise 73.8% of enrollment, while 12.2% are Hispanic. Black, Asian, Native American and those who identify with more than one race make up less than 6% each. A total of 41% of students are considered “high needs,” which means they fall into one of three categories — low-income, students with disabilities and English language learners.
The Panorama survey asks students an array of questions to determine how they feel about their school climate and wellness and measures the results against the last time the survey was given, in this case, in the spring of the 2022-23 school year.
For students in grades 6-12, there were slight increases in the portion of students who responded positively about the school climate and how engaged they were. Students reporting supportive relationships in their school remained steady at 90%. While students experiencing positive feelings did not increase from the 66% recorded in the spring, reports of negative feelings dropped by 2 percentage points to 65%. The largest gain was in the area of school safety, which rose 4 points to 86%. Engagement was the lowest metric for these students, with just 59% reporting positive feelings of engagement.
Grades 3-5 saw a 2-point decrease in supportive relationships, though 91% report having them. The school climate score increased to 86%, while the 83% of students with a favorable view of school safety reflects an increase of nine points over the end of the last school year. The remaining scores remained fairly flat. Like the older grades, the lowest metric was in student feelings of engagement, at 65%.
For grades K-2, teachers report their perceptions of students. All the categories showed decreases over the last survey, with some metrics reflecting a 10-11-point decline. The data shows the most positive results involved emotional regulation, at 79% of students, while 69% of students were observed to have positive social awareness. The scores for engagement, social perspective taking and self-management all ranked in the 50th percentile.
Director of Curriculum Heather Brown said these findings were similar to the results of the survey taken at the beginning of the last school year. Generally, the results improve over the year.
There are several metrics of accountability on which the school department is graded. “ELPS as a whole is making substantial progress,” Smith said, noting that the majority of school departments in the state fall into either the “moderate” or substantial” progress categories as laid out by the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.
In East Longmeadow, chronic absenteeism, defined by a student being absent for 10% or more of school days, is down by half to 9.4% for students in grades K-8, while the high school saw a reduction of three points to 17.8%.
In exploring actions to take, Smith said, “It’s not about punishment, it’s about how can we help this child get to school?” He said the school department had hired a part-time family outreach coordinator to help identify students who are struggling, which includes chronic absenteeism. Brown said the Panorama software makes it easier for teachers to see patterns in attendance.
The percentage of completed advanced coursework at the high school rose to 76% from 70% in 2022. Smith said addressing scheduling conflicts helped. For students with disabilities, the increase was more dramatic, from 34.2% last year to 61.1% this year.
MCAS scores showed a mixture of growth and decline. While scores on the language assessment at the high school level met or exceeded expectations, most scores in grades 3-8 fell, except for the “lowest performers” category, which saw a slight increase, despite being below target.
Brown attributed part of the “dip” among elementary and middle school levels to the adoption of a new literacy curriculum last year. School Committee member Sarah Truoiolo asked if the schools were watching to see if the curriculum was being implemented correctly. Brown said the implementation was underway and professional development on the curriculum had been conducted.
The math assessment at the high school showed improved results from low-income students, but a decline in the scores of students with disabilities. For the younger students, math assessments showed an overall decline, although the lowest performers met their target and students with disabilities improved, while still not meeting the target.
In general, the high schoolers’ science assessment scores increased toward their target, but scores among all categories of high needs students fell. Grades 3-8 saw a decline among all categories of students.
i-Ready
The i-Ready tests measure student achievement for grades 1-8 in terms of whether they are at, above or below grade level. Across the schools, 42% of students are at or above grade level in reading. Similar to the Panorama survey results, Brown said this was in line with where students were at the beginning of the last school year.
Grades 1-3 show the lowest portion of students at or above grade level and the most reading two or three grade levels behind. By grade 4, the percentage of students reading at or above grade level doubles to 30%. Grade 6 shows the highest portion of students reading at or above grade level, at 43%.
In math, 30% of students are performing at or above grade level, while 21% are two to three grade levels behind. Like the reading diagnostic, students in grades 1-3 show decreasing rates of grade-level work, but see a significant turnaround in fourth grade, from 15% at or above grade level to 30%. Smith told Reminder Publishing that as younger students reach the third grade, it becomes more evident which ones are struggling and interventions can then be put in place.
Truoiolo asked if there is i-Ready data available to show if students are continuing to improve in subsequent grades or if they are falling behind grade level each year. Brown said that information can be explored.
When discussing action steps, Smith said that there has been a move toward “grading for equity.” Brown explained that a zero in a gradebook can make a student feel like it is impossible to get ahead. The practice also focuses on redrafting and revising work, a practice that has traditionally been limited to use in English language arts classes but is now being used in other subjects, as well. It is important “not to shut kids down,” Brown said. “It’s about the learning, not the grade.”
Phone policy feedback
A survey was given to staff and students at the middle and high schools to gather feedback on the cellphone policy that was rolled out at the start of the school year. Students are required to put their phones in numbered pouches on a phone station at the beginning of class and retrieve them after the period has ended. Smith commented that there was strong “division” between students and staff on whether they support the policy.
When asked if the new policy was easy to implement, 83.7% of staff who responded to the survey agreed. Nearly 73% said students were willing to cooperate with the policy and 65.2% said they have had to follow up with five or fewer students about following the procedure. The same portion of staff, 9.8%, reported no conversations with students who did not want to follow the policy as have said they had to speak to 10 or more students. Four in five staff said they have sent no students to the office over the phone policy.
More than 80% of staff agreed that students have been more focused and engaged, and 89.2% said they would like the policy to continue.
Smith said comments from the survey reflected that staff were glad the policy was rolled out across the district, limiting student reaction that saw the teacher as “the bad guy.” He said people were also pleased that administrators were actively enforcing the policy in the early days of the school year. Some teachers found the process of students putting their phone away as “a time drag” that ate into time on learning, Smith said.
Results from students at Birchland Park Middle School were different than those from the high school.
“The high school is a little more strongly against” the policy, Smith said, while middle schoolers reacted more neutrally.
A total of 39% of high school students and 56.3% of middle schoolers agreed that the policy was easily implemented, but just over a third of students at Birchland Park and less than a quarter of East Longmeadow High School students said their peers were willing to follow the new rules. Even so, 69.8% of those at the middle school and 45.6% at the high school said they had no problem complying.
A third of the middle school and a fifth of the high school said students appeared more engaged. A similar segment of the middle school said their own academic performance had improved without phones present, while 17.7% of high schoolers said the same. Not surprisingly, 62.3% of high schoolers “strongly disagreed” that the policy should stay in place next year. Just a quarter of middle schoolers had the same level of vehement disapproval.
A number of students wrote comments to go along with the survey and Smith said many made well-written cases against the phone policy. The arguments included that allowing students to practice self-restraint in not using their phone was healthy and that there are emergency situations in which a phone may be needed. One middle school student summed up their opinion on the policy by succinctly stating, “It is bad.”
Smith pointed out that a larger number of Birchland Park students were likely used to not having a phone, making the policy less impactful to them. Truoiolo noted that middle school students cited connections to their families as a reason to keep a phone with them, while high schoolers pointed to connections to their peers in the comments.
Smith reminded the School Committee and members of the public that the final public forum on the proposed high school project will take place at the high school on Oct. 19. A tour of the high school will be conducted at 5:30 p.m. for those interested and the forum will begin at 6 p.m.
The public will vote whether to approve a debt exclusion to fund the school and whether to separately approve one for the natatorium, which would house the pool, in a special election on Nov. 7. A yes vote would be needed to move forward on the project. Early voting in the East Longmeadow Public Library Conference Room begins Oct. 28, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and continues each day from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. until Nov. 3. Residents with questions should contact Town Clerk Jeanne Quaglietti at Jeanne.Quaglietti@eastlongmeadowma.gov or 413-525-5400, ext. 1001.